Seminar on the title Earthquake and Disaster Management.

Introduction

Department of community Development “PUNYA” is a newly developed department in the Institute. It was opened to serve the society beyond its formal objectives. Keeping this objective in the mind it organized its first seminar on 10 June 2015 on the title ‘Earthquake and Disaster Management’ in seminar hall of the Institute. This topic was chosen to meet with the challenges produced by the tremors in recent times. The main per- pose was to let our people know about the nature of earthquake and management of disaster aftermath. Some 100 participants entertained the seminar comprises by institutes Director, Deans, Heads, faculty and staff members with invited guests.

The Seminar

On 10th June, 2015 a seminar on the title “Earthquake and DisasterManagement” was organized by the Department of Community Development Buddha Institute of technology in the seminar hall new building from 11 a.m.. The aim of the seminar was to educate the participants about earthquake and its impacts on life and property of the people. In addition to it, it was tried to explore how we can mitigate the loss of life and property aftermath. Keynote speakers were well known scholars in the field of civil engineering with around five decades of experience. Prof. Alak Roy, Ex. Head, Department of Civil Engineering in KNIT Sulatanpur and Prof. C. P. Hingorani, Ex. Head, Department of Civil Engineering MMM University of Technology, Gorakhpur (Formerly known as MMM Engineering College). He is a famous architect and advisor in these subjects. He has keen interest in art of living with nature also.

In his keynote address Professor C. P. Hingorani’s observation was very interesting and thought provoking. Professor said that the tremors never kill the people. It is ignorance of science and technology by the people in the field of building construction that put the people in danger. He said in detail about the “Earthquake resistant buildings” and emphasis that if buildings are properly designed and constructed as per the norms, there will be no danger to the buildings. Further he explained about the design of various components of a building, especially with reference to the reinforcement pattern, the foundation and various other components of a building. If the buildings are safe during EQ, there will be no casualties and hence no danger. He also told about the relevance of “VASTU” in the buildings and how a house can be eco or nature friendly. Prof. Hingorani put up a pictorial presentation also to make his point more clear to be understood by participants of seminar. In the mean time, he tried to answer the queries of the listeners. Finally he established that we can save our people and avoid the loss of property by preventive care. Before any construction we must take advice from the experts. By the help of technology we can make a good building without any extra cost. Though there was paucity of time to go through all areas of disaster management but successful efforts were made to meet with the objectives.

Prof. Alak Roy, in his speech, talked about Earthquake, natural disaster and T. Sunami etc.. He described about the nature of Earthquake shocks, the Richter scale for the measurement of magnitude of the shocks. He talked about the catastrophe that these natural disasters can create and told that there are about one lakh tremors every year in the world which are perceptible. Further he explained the process of spread of EQ waves and the mechanism of its occurrence, measurement of shocks and its location. He focused on the preparations of these seismic tremors. It was very hard work for keynote speakers to balance the time and content of the speech and satisfy the question from listeners but they successfully did it.

Prof. J. P. Gupta was the president of the seminar. In his address he talked on earth tremors, the various types of waves that cause earthquake and the dangers associated with it. He also told about Richter Scale which is used for measurement of magnitude of the shock waves.

Prof. Sudhir Agrawal, Director of the institute introduced the chief guest to the spectators. He briefed the impact of earthquake on society and the aim of seminar and detailed the purpose of community development.

The tone of the seminar was set in academic and curiosity producing mode. The event was staged by the Keynote speakers, Director of the institute Prof. Sudhir Agrawal and chaired by Prof. J.P. Gupta, Ex. Pro-Vice Chancellor, and D.D.U. Gorakhpur University Gorakhpur and at present in the position of Dean in the institute. Prof. C. M. Prasad, Dean Mathematics, Dr. D. K. Dwevedi, Dean Academic, Prof. A .K. Mishra, Dean, Electronics and Communication Engineering and Registrar Prof. H. N. Singh, Heads of various departments , faculties and students were attended and graced the seminar.

The anchor of the total programme was Sri Rakesh Kumar Tiwari. He was the master of ceremonies and he also gave vote of thanks. The people who worked behind the curtain to make the grand success of the event were Dr. Vinit Kumar Chaubey, Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Science and Engg. Neeraj Chaubey, Deptt. of Civil Engineering. The great support was given by Sri Santosh Tripathi and Shashank Upadhyay of Training and Placement Department. All the resource management was done by Sri Deepak Agrawal, Administrative officer and Mr. Ankit Dochaniya, T& P Department. Arjun Yadav and Piyush Mishra of store department also helped a lot.